Many tribes that would like to build casinos more than "commuting distance" from their reservations are waiting anxiously for word of a change in policy from the Obama administration and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

One of the biggest projects that hangs on this possible change in policy is a $1.5 billion Indian casino combined with a redevelopment project in Richmond, California, overlooking San Francisco Bay. That casino would have 5,000 slot machines, two hotels, a convention center, a residential development and retail shopping.

Critics of changing the policy that was adopted in the last year of the Bush administration say the purpose is to get access to big metropolitan areas far from most reservations. In California, where one of the largest Indian gaming booms has happened in the last decade, all attempts to locate casinos near large cities have met with tough resistance.

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) has doggedly resisted efforts to expand Indian gaming to the Bay Area-she is opposing the Richmond Casino, whose tribal partner is the landless Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, backed by the city of Richmond. The Guidiville band does have a traditional homeland near Ukiah, but that is 100 miles from where it hopes to build-on a 413-acre former U.S. Navy fuel depot. That property, Point Molate, was recently transferred to the city by the Navy. The city is hoping to create jobs and reinvigorate its economy through the huge project.

Some of the project's loudest opponents have been silenced-critics say bought off. Recently, Contra Costa County, which had opposed the project from the start, agreed to support it in return for $12 million annually. Some environmental organizations that initially opposed the development are now negotiating with the developer to pay for preservation of some shoreline habitat.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's stance is murky. A spokesman for the governor has spoken against the project-and strongly suggested that it could threaten the constitutionality of all Indian gaming in the state. Yet the governor himself two months ago allowed the Navy to transfer 41 acres considered vital to the project to the city of Richmond when he could have stopped it.

Another tribe in the Bay area, the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, wants to build a casino more than 100 miles from their reservation, which is located near Clear Lake.

Most tribal casinos in the U.S. are on tribal land, and most are far from cities. In California, at least, that was a big selling point with voters in getting them to approve a constitutional amendment in 1999 to allow such casinos to go forward. But there are exceptions, such as Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Spokane, Washington.

But there are about a dozen tribes that want to penetrate that market even more, such as the Guidiville. Under the current policy, their prospects would be limited.

By GGB Staff

Staff writers for Global Gaming Business magazine. Las Vegas, Nevada.